Young Justice: The Crow Saga
by DJ Comicbook
Summary: Young Justice gain a new member and meet the most devastating menaces they've ever faced from within and without. Story takes into account recent events for Robin and YJ. Work in progress.
1. Prologue

Blackbird/Young Justice:  
The Crow Saga  
Prologue: The New Young Justice  
  
Superboy. Kon-El. The Metropolis Kid, the Boy of Steel... heir to the throne of Superman. He ran his fingers across the conference table at Happy Harbor. This was Young Justice's HQ. Just like when the JLA was here, Kon was sitting in a chair which bore his symbol on the back. A big red and yellow 'S' indicated that he was the head honcho. And since Alvin Draper/Robin left, he had been acting like it, but with a little less success, often relying on Wondergirl to back him up and point him in the right direction.  
"Okay..." Superboy looked around the table. "Lets be real serious for a minute... put everything out in the open..." He looked to his side, past the chair with Robin's 'R' symbol.  
Impulse. Bart Allen. What a kid. He was a speedster by birth, accessing the speed force with a talent and power unlike any his age had ever hoped to understand. Even with his impulsive tendencies he was a vital asset to the team, as comic relief if not a scout and lifesaver. He playing rubix cube with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. He was working at a blurry speed and stopped suddenly to look up at Superboy. "Huh?"  
Cassie cut in. Cassandra Sandsmark was Wondergirl, a fast strong young female with a growing confidence and great down-to-earth mind. She had a tendency to overlap Kon-El's attempts at leadership, out of admiration as often as necessity. "She's cool..." Cassie refered to their prospective teammate... "But she's taking someone's place, and that's not easy."  
"She has to be straightforward..." Cissie spoke up. Arrowette, Cissie King-Jones, had quit Young Justice for sometime, but recent and somewhat unknown developments had allowed her to work with them during the summers. "And she has to be GOOD, not just a name filler."  
Everyone agreed with her on that one.  
Empress, Anita Maad piped up, a little reluctant being a more recent member, having gone on only one mission with the MIA member. "Big shoes to fill... but we all have to give her a chance... ALL of us..." She puposefully and deliberately looked at Secret.  
Secret, known only as Suzie, little sister of Harm, was a gaseous female, able to turn into anything except solid for more than a few seconds. "What are you looking at me for?" She became defensive quickly.  
"I'm sure she didn't mean anything bad by it, Secret," Wondergirl covered, "she just wanted to remind you about..."   
Cassie trailed off but Secret didn't quite catch on... or didn't let on she had caught on...  
Lobo stood in the corner... he had something against tables... or maybe he just didn't like the fact that he hadn't gotten a seat next to Anita. He folded his arms and in his tough scratch voice blurted her business out in the street like he was blowing his nose. "Heh. We all thought you were soft for the frail lil guy, so some chick... and this chick in pertic'lar, well... we figgered..."  
"You figured what, Lobo?" She raised her voice as she gusted over to him, floating in his face. "That I would be all jealous cuz some amateur is going to take... his place!? That I'd be judgemental all because of something that DIDN'T happen months ago? Get real, muscle head."  
"Suzie..." Superboy's voice sounded very authoritative.  
Everyone looked towards him. He liked that.  
"It's time..." He stood up and looked towards the doorway as it opened. Two big metal doors slid sidewards out of the way... in the doorway stood...  
Lagoonboy!  
Impulse gave a weird look towards the door. "Goony? What are you doing here?"  
Lagoonboy looked around. "Oops." He slid out of the way, scampering in to the conference table, finding Aquaman's old seat bearing Lobo's scowling visage. He frowned.  
Where he was standing walked in a smooth and trim feminine figure. She was young by height and mannerisms, but she was a fighter. You could see it in her eyes, even if they were the only thing showing in her dark cowl. She was wearing pink. Impulse laughed, but Wondergirl shut him up.  
She walked in smoothly and walked to the conference table. She stood by Robin's old seat but wasn't bold enough to actually sit down in it. She looked over the table.  
"I'm Spoiler."  
Superboy gave a calming smile. "St...er... Spoiler..." He looked at her to see if she had caught his stutter, but it was impossible to tell. "We all know each other. We hang out at Wondergirl's house. We know each other's parents. Come clean...."  
Spoiler looked around the room. She reached up to her pink hood and pulled it back. She yanked off her black hood and with a spin removed her pink garments. She stood there in a revamped Robin costume. Full red chest with daisy duke style black at the bottom and big ol black boots, black gloves and a full black cape with a black and red mask.   
"She fills out the costume better than Alvin, I'll tell ya..." Lagoonboy chuckled. Impulse looked down at him with a strange look, but the little amphibian acted as if he had said nothing.  
Robin, the fourth one yet, sat down in the proper seat and looked around the table.  
Everyone just looked at her stunned for a minute until she spoke up.  
"This is Robin on estrogen... any questions..."  
No one could help but smile just a bit at that one. The girls kinda giggled, except Secret.  
Wondergirl stood up. "I think I speak for just about everyone when I say 'Welcome, Robin'  
"Call me Steph..."  
And there wasn't a straight face in the room. This just might work out in the long run.  
  
  
End Prologue  



	2. 

Young Justice:  
THE CROW SAGA  
  
Chapter Two: Fish out of Water  
  
"Lobo, Secret, let's move!!" Robin yelled as she hopped onto the Super-Cycle. This was the fourth person to wear the guise of Robin. She was the first female... maybe that would eventually go down in a record book or something. She was strong, talented and possibly better than the third Robin, her boyfriend until he disappeared. She was now helping out on Young Justice, a team of superpowered teeangers. Right now the team included Superboy, Wondergirl, Impulse, Arrowette, Lagoonboy, Empress, Lil Lobo, Secret and chaperone Red Tornado.   
  
The super-cycle, as it was called, was a remarkable construct which seated nearly all of Young Justice, in addition to boasting some monstrous amount of firepower and technologically marvelous abilities. Superboy, Wondergirl and Empress hopped in front, Impulse, Arrowette, Lobo and the ethereal Secret leapt into the back.  
  
Lagoonboy was about to hop on...  
  
"Lagoonboy," Red Tornado stood away from the cycle, toward the direction of the war room. "You're staying here to help coordinate the team's efforts in case they get separated.... And Arrowette, your mother would not allow me to send you on this mission..."  
  
"Awww, man..." He scampered away from the cycle towards the room, promptly putting on the headset and punching buttons, as he had been trained.   
  
Arrowette on the other hand was more quiet, and far more upset. She stormed out, throwing her mask and bow on the ground, leaving her quiver at the door, mumbling the entire time.  
  
"Okay, Rob," Lagoonboy's voice came over all the coms, "get outta here, kick some alien tail..." He punched a button as Red Tornado sat down next to him.  
  
The Super-cycle blazed into the air at speeds which would crash even the most sophisticated supercomputers. It didn't take long however before the kids realized they were in over their heads. The Super-cycle, landing a safe distance from the crisis site was rocked by a devastating blast. The occupants were thrown into the surrounding shrubbery, except for Robin and Superboy, who were squarely in the center of a small clearing.   
  
  
Superboy was up and hot first. "Robin, Wondy, where are you..."  
  
"I'm right here, Kon." Robin stood up. Her voice was decidedly dark now. A very Robin and Batman type warning of impending danger.  
  
Superboy looked in the same direction she had been. Before them stood a strange white creature. It's eye glew in red and it began to change. It became a twisted form which could only be refereed to as a white version of the Martian Manhunter.   
  
"That's him..." Robin said in a now even more ominous verse.  
  
"The white martian?" Superboy asked incredulously. By this time Wondergirl had landed next to them.  
  
"A strong as Superman?" She asked.  
  
"As fast as the Flash?" Empress asked them from a distance, using her telepathics.  
  
"As tough as Wonderwoman?" Secret asked as she invisibly flowed around Robin.  
  
"TelepathicAndShapeshiftingLikeMartianManhunter?!" Impulse said as he stopped on a dime next to Superboy.  
  
Robin simply nodded. "Yup."  
  
The monstrosity spoke. "Children? I am to defeat mere children?"  
  
"What are we gonna do?" Wondergirl asked the question on everyone's minds.  
  
"Frag 'im. That's what!!" Lobo appeared out of the forest. He was boasting two very high-tech looking guns which he was already firing at the white martian.   
  
The rest of the team bounded into action just as quickly. "Empress, link us!" Robin called out. It seemed she was asserting herself as a leader of sorts, though Superboy and Wondergirl may not be so quick to agree. "Superboy, Wondergirl, keep pressure on him if you can, Impulse, defend Empress as she works, hit-and-runs!"  
  
Even as she said this it was becoming part of their own thinking as Empress linked the minds of the teams together to a certain degree to improve teamwork in this dire situation.  
  
The martian laughed as he absorbed the bullets. To him they weren't much more than a 20 mph wind. Lobo paused for a minute, cranked up the power and found that he was able to achieve the effect of a 35 mph wind on a person with round after round of bullets. The martian was having trouble moving forward now. Superboy and Wondergirl came pounding down on him. He blocked some hits, but the two youngsters were so intense that they kept getting in little quick hits. Suddenly the thing spotted Robin.  
  
"Lets see how you do without your team leader..." He whispered to Superboy.  
  
The telepathic link picked it up and Robin understood she was in danger, but what could she do about it? The white martian moved at speeds beyond the speed of sound at Robin. In the moment of a pico second he had slipped under the hits of Wondergirl and Superboy, walked out of the stream of bullets, leaving the two teens in the way and was lunging at Robin.  
  
"Notsofast!" Impulse struck out at the martian, who was less than happy as he caught a sucker punch to the face. It reacted fast. Very fast. Before Impulse could block the first hit, the martian had struck Impulse in the gut, knocking him upwards, and downwards again by hitting him in the head and in the back. A microsecond had passed as he took an extra milisecond glance at Impulse and ran at Robin. He swung out at Robin and... his hand passed through. Swinging again, he glared at the image of Robin. There was a brownish haze... and... the image was fading. She was being smoked jumped by Secret!  
  
The martian turned back towards his combatants, Lobo was now shooting at him again. With his new resolve to utterly decimate this team he caught every single bullet out of the air one by one, running at Lobo the whole time.  
  
"You're going to die little man." He cackled.  
  
"Die? The Top Teen?" He asked, as if the statement had truly shocked him. He ran out of ammo. The martian smiled.  
  
So did Lobo. As Superboy and Wondergirl flew at the martian, Lobo lunged.  
  
--  
Back at the base:  
  
Lagoonboy and Martian Manhunter fiddled with the controls rapidly.  
  
"Something's wrong..." Red Tornado said. "Communication is out... all communication... no... just the output, we're still receiving..."  
  
"If we weren't receiving, the JLA would probably be alerted." Lagoonboy commented on the computer's automatic emergency systems.   
  
"Go check the main power converter..." Red Tornado nodded to the boy, who promptly scurried off around the corner.  
  
At this base, the conference room was the center of everything, so Lagoonboy had to pass through there to get to where he had to go. He didn't expect someone to be standing on the table as he turned the corner.  
  
It was a man in black. A young man possibly. He was wearing some sort of costume, but the most visible thing was his cloak and hood. It was this impossibly dark jet black which seemed to stink of death and doom. The hood covered the man's head completely, with the help of a dark eye mask. Only the stubbled chin was visible.  
  
"Who the heck are you?" Lagoonboy asked, blinking stupidly.  
  
"I..." began the dark stranger... "Am the Crow... and I'm here to kill you..."  
  
--  
On the field:  
  
The martian elbow smashed Lil Lobo in the face first. The cackling martian swung around him as his momentum left he knocked Lobo into the ground before the little man could react. Lobo stood up with even more fury. "Now yer gonna get it, tall pale and ugly..."  
  
The martian laughed as it dodged a punch by Superboy with a simple lean. The white martian palmed Superboy's chest with a suddenly enlarged hand and slammed the the boy headfirst through the ground. Superboy struggled weekly, upside down waist deep into the earth.   
  
Wondergirl gasped as the thing reached out to do the same thing to her. With a practiced move she slipped out, grabbed the thing's wrist and flipped it. Normal physics however didn't apply as it simply righted itself and grabbed both of Wondgirl's arms. He began to pull at them, and Kon heard her skin rip.   
  
"AAAARGH!!!" Lobo lunged towards the guy  
  
Cackling the combatant tossed the dazed Wondergirl up in the air.  
  
He struck out at Lobo. Not just any strikes, mind you, but his hands moved at rapid speeds and his hands became atomically sharp. He hit lobo in the temples, in the neck, in the shoulder, in the chest, in his abdomen twice and all over his arms. As Lobo finally got close with his immortal self, the martian turned his hand into a brick of incredible density and brought it down on Lobo's head, too fast for the last czarnian to do anything about it.  
  
Lobo hit the ground hard and bounced. Twice. His chest, neck head and arms were all covered in bloody gashes, cuts and bruises. He moaned ever so faintly and tried to lift up his head. His head dropped pitifully and weakly. The martian caught Wondergirl by a leg then. And grabbed one of her arms with his free hand and began to pull again.  
  
"LOBO!!!!!!!!" Anita Maad screamed. Empress was a mystery woman of sorts. She drew them from a certain spirit, and though some members of the team may not have felt too comfortable with it, they had to admit that they weren't so orthodox themselves. Secret was kinda dead, Superboy was a clone, Wondergirl was a product of greek mythology, and Robin was well... the Suburban legend. Add Impulse, the result of illegal tampering with the time continuim and you've got a bunch of kids who shouldn't necessarily exist.  
  
She practiced Vodoun... what many uninformed Americans may call voodoo, but there were not dolls or chants here. Empress' powers were very literal and not nearly as mysterious as their origin. When she fought, none doubted that she was empowered by both something supernatural in addition to her own spirit. Nothing however was more forceful than her mental abilities. She wasn't a conventional telepathic, but she had ways to attack the mind. That she did. Unleashing an onslaught of power on the white martian she screamed. Lobo and her had been growing very close, lately, and seeing the man whom she literally thought was invincible fall hard was a bit too much for her.   
  
The white martian yelled with her as the onslaught attacked his powerful telepathic brain. The pain was intense but he began to fight it, still trying to pull a screaming wondergirl apart. Superboy pulled himself out of the ground. He was coughing, gagging, barely breathing. He looked up and saw the scene unfold before him.   
  
"Caaaaaaassssssssieeeeeeeeeee!!!" His superspeed had never been faster... the pupil literally erased from his eyes. They flared white as he flew at the back of the martian monster. The being began to cackle as Empress fell to her knees from the mental strain.  
  
He grinned evilly as Wondergirl and Empress moaned. "Now, young ones, as cute as you are by earth standards you..."  
  
"DIE!!!"  
  
Superboy grabbed the martian in a full nelson from the back. His powers seemed to be erupting from him. His hands glowed blue as the same powers which pushed him through the air and could cause explosions along the ground began to shake the insides of the martian. Even as he got a firm hold on the thing he fired.  
  
Superboy fired his heatvision.  
  
White beams tore through the back of the head and out the eyes of the white martian as Superboy's tactile teleknesis shook the martian hard. He quaked, bubbled and then, as Empress gave a final push of mental strength and the thing detonated.  
  
'SPLAMMMMMM!!'  
  
Superboy knelt next to Wondergirl, holding her close as Robin and Secret and Impulse tended to Lobo and Empress.  
  
  
Young Justice returned tiredly that night. They were injured and dizzy. Impulse and Secret were doing a great deal of the work, helping keep everyone physically and mentally stable. No one was prepared for what they saw when they entered the conference room.  
  
Red Tornado lay, charred on the ground. His legs were not connected to him, and were nowhere to be seen in the room apparently. Attached to his back was a small gray device, apparently used to overload the android's circuits.  
  
The horror was still to come when Robin, who had been looking around the room frantically suddenly stopped and looked up. What she saw reminded her that she was part of the Batman system now... and in this game, sometimes people get hurt. Hurt really really bad.  
  
A drop of blood dropped onto the ground and the rest of the team looked up. Lagoonboy hung there, suspended by two strings from the ceiling, one attached to his arm, one to his leg. In his chest was cut deeply what, from this angle, appeared to be a Z shape... like Zorro would have done to someone hanging sidewards.  
  
Robin looked at Superboy, who closed his eyes and bowed his head in agony and sadness.  
  
Robin, once again, took over...  
  
"Impulse, get Red, find his legs, Secret, go check Lagoonboy's pulse, now. Empress, scan for any intruders still here."  
  
She turned and walked towards the control room.   
  
End Chapeter 1.  



	3. 

Young Justice:  
THE CROW SAGA  
  
Chapter Three: Broken Arrow  
  
"Stupid parents..."  
Arrowette, Cissie King-Jones, an olympian student by day, a Hero called Arrowette by night... at least over the summer. Her mother wanted the best for her, wanted her to be the best. Once she had though that becoming a super-hero was the way. Now Mrs. Jones wanted Cissie to be an Olympian. Next year it would probably be an sideshow performer, who knows.  
  
Young Justice had gone out on a mission. She had not been allowed to come, she had had to go home. Stay safe. It's too dangerous.  
  
"ARGH!"  
  
Arrowette yelled in agony. She wanted to be a REAL hero, not just a sometimes backup, only there for the fun part. She was still in costume as she stormed through forest that was near her home. She leapt the back fence easy. Robin had been helping to train her before he left.   
  
Now her mother was expecting her, but a lot earlier. Cissie, in anger, had spent some time practicing her moves and her aim with the trick arrows. So, not to awake her mother, she leapt onto a tree limb, then deftly scampered across the roof. Her mother would be expecting her to come in the hallway window which she used to use. Cissie simply slid into her room bay window. Previously this hadn't been openable, but she had found ways around that. She stepped into her room and gently replaced the removable pane of glass. She walked to her closet and took off her mask and bow. She reached to take off her red breastplate when she suddenly felt very uncomfortable. This was common for 12 year olds, especially ones that hang with 16 and 17 year olds, but still.  
  
She turned around and in the middle of her room was standing a man! He was dressed all in black. She looked around quickly. The pane to her room was laying there next to its open hole! She looked at the man again. He was in a cloak and hood. The wind blew softly and in the dim twilight she caught a glimpse of his right chestplate. It had a strange graywinged 'C' emblem.  
  
"Who are you!?" Her voice caught in her throat and was only a whisper.  
  
He just smiled, and rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Just consider me your future. All of it."  
  
She backed away a bit, towards her weapons. In a flash, the Crow had attacked her, grabbing her and lifting her up in the air! She flipped with the move and spun him loose, she stopped in the middle of her room in a judo stance. He laughed.  
  
Leaping into the air, Arrowette kicked at Crow's face. Crow leaned back and ran his hand over her leg. She landed in a fury and swept kicked at him. He hopped over it like he was playing double-dutch. Arrowette performed several kicks at Crow. He slid backwards, blocking the kicks with his legs. His hands never left his sides.   
  
"How did you know I lived here!?" She yelled as she reached into her desk while doing a jump kick and grabbing a small crossbow. Crow laughed as he slid away from the jump kick. Arrowette had fired the crossbow three times before she hit the ground. She hopped up, all karate-like and stood, aiming the thing at him.  
  
He stood there and smile as he removed a hand from his cloak. In it were three arrows. He had caught all three in the blink of an eye.  
  
She gawked for a moment. Then her resolve firmed. She became angrier and more intense.   
  
"You've invaded my home."  
  
He nodded.  
  
"You've invaded my room. My privacy. My freaking personal space."  
  
He only gestured that this was true.  
  
"I'm sending you to the hospital, tonight buster!"  
  
She opened fire with various powerful arrows. The Crow became very active sliding sidewards and swinging his cape furiously. His cape moved the wind in such a way that the explosive arrows sailed out the small open window pane.   
  
The backyard pool exploded, making Crow wonder what would've happened to the room.  
  
The other arrows plunged through the window panes. An acid arrow, a net arrow, things like that weren't very impressive to Crow.  
  
Even as the arrows were flying however, Arrowette had attack Crow with a slew of complicated kicks and punches. Crow blocked each and everyone, and in an opening he caught Arrowette's leg, tripped her up and then chokeslammed her against her own BSB poster.  
  
"I'm sending you to the morgue."  
  
Her eyes went bug-eyed as he choked her harder... she could barely eke out a small word?  
  
"Why..."  
  
He grinned even more evilly.  
  
"Because I like you so much."  
--  
  
Mrs. Jones burst into her daughters room. For some odd reason, it was clean. Usually this room was a mess of disarray and dishevelment. Now it was spotless, organized, free of clutter.   
  
This wonderful miracle was not what caught her attention. Her gaze was locked on her daughter. Cissie had been strung up in her room. An arrow had been imbedded in the ceiling, which her feet had been bound to. An arrow had also been bound to the floor, which her hands were tied to.  
  
Mrs. Jones, rightfully, screamed at the top of her lungs.  



End file.
